He Bore Our Diseases

As Christians in a fallen world, it is so crucial for us to have a good solid theology of suffering. Because when sickness and sorrow come, which they inevitably do, what we believe determines how we react to it.

This week I had the privilege of visiting Marge Krieger in the hospital. She broke two of her ribs and her lung was punctured. She is ninety-seven years old. And she was so joyful. More joyful that I was when I’ve been in the hospital with a kidney stone. That’s for sure.

It’s really amazing . . . I came there to be a pastor and minister to her . . .she’s walked with the Lord for eighty-eight years . . . since she was nine years old . . . she memorizes one Bible verse every day . . . for the last eighty-eight years . . . and she ministered to me! She was telling me all about the Bible and Jesus and trusting in Him. The hospital chaplain came into the room and I said, “You need to sit down, she’s manifesting to us right now.”

And it’s really because she has a right understanding of suffering. She has a good theology. She understands this broken, fallen world that we live in. That’s the only way she could be joyful in the circumstances in which she finds herself.

Please continue to pray for her.

So many people believe the wrong things about sickness, especially for the Christian. There are people we talked about last week, there are some who teach that it’s not God’s will for any of his children to ever be sick or suffer.

Thus all sick Christians have to do is just claim Jesus’ name and if it doesn’t happen, well, they didn’t have enough faith

Others teach Jesus miraculously healed people in the New Testament, but He doesn’t do that today. That was just to confirm his message.

There’s still a third view which is something in between. I’d like to study our third passage in as many weeks that deals with Jesus healing people.

It will give us a clue about how to view our own suffering and what role the Lord plays in it.

The so-called problem of pain—why there’s pain in the world and why pain happens to us—is something that all of us eventually need to wrestle with.

Thank God we have His Word and His Word always has the answer for us. Let’s ask the Lord to speak to us now through His Word and to give us the true solution to all our problems.